Russian President Vladimir Putin may be in peace where Brussels is concerned, Daniel Anyz writes in Hospodarske noviny (HN).

He writes that Russia is the third largest trade partner of he European Union after the United States and China. Germany alone has some 6000 firms doing business in Russia. The volume of their direct investments stood at 20 billion euros in 2013, Anyz writes.

It is therefore no wonder that Berlin will not be eager to impose any sanctions on Russia. The problem is that Germany´s stand is decisive for the whole EU and that many other members will gladly hide themselves behind Germany´s back, Anyz writes.

The EU is relativising its initial sharp statements and no deeds will probably follow. If the United States resorts to any sanctions, it will be alone on the western side, Anyz writes.

Former Czech president Vaclav Klaus and his supporters consider the European Union to be the biggest evil of the present, Michal Musil writes elsewhere in Hospodarske noviny (HN).

Because the new Ukrainian regime wants to cooperate with the EU and Russian President Vladimir Putin is against this regime, Klaus´s group may consider Putin an ally, Musil writes.

Alexandr Mitrofanov writes in Pravo that German Chancellor Angela Merkel believes that Putin has lost any adequate link with reality and that he lives in a different world.

He definitely lives in a world that is different from the Euro-Atlantic civilisations´s. But this did not happen from day to day, Mitrofanov writes.

He writes that tightening the attitude to anyone disagreeing with Putin started within Russia much earlier and it has now spilled over into areas outside the Russian border, Mitrofanov writes.

The protection of Ukrainian citizens of Russian nationality is of course but a pretext for Vladimir Putin, which all know. He knows that all know it, but he either does not care, in which case the pretext is awkward, or he has not been able to invent anything wiser, Vladimir Kucera writes in Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD).

Putin and his allies are seeking to restore the existence and influence of Great Russia, and a big part of Russians support him in this because they are convinced that the West, instead of respecting them and being duly grateful to them, continues to push them aside and humiliate them, Kucera writes with irony.

He continues saying the Russians have long been convinced that they are the chosen and that they have made an immense contribution to the world. That the others do not comprehend this, has caused them a national trauma.